This month I have felt a buzz of excitement as we started our strategic planning process. Kendra, Tash, Gabriel gave us a flavour for what they would like to see achieved in livestock, companion animal and wildlife research respectively. Siobhan did a great job driving our One Health strategy. The networking session on One Health was lots of fun. Over 30 academics from the Faculty attended and had a great time pitching their project ideas. Many thanks to Helen Jones, Penny Oxford, Harry Chin, Kim Heasman, Marie Wildridge and Siobhan Mor for all the effort they put into making the day work!

We got lots of feedback after the strategic planning session. Some comments included:

We need to focus on research that the community cares about

We should hold public talks presented by Faculty staff

We need to improve the publication culture of our HDR students

We need more links with biomedical science

We must break down “silos” within Faculty

We must get rid of emphasis of collaboration within faculty and focus on collaboration beyond faculty

A One-Health SPARC (MBI are working on that!)

We should promote species specific hubs to be more attractive to industry bodies

We should attract more Cat 2 funding – particularly for companion animal research

We should double the number of indigenous research projects

Where does our successful international program fit?

A Camden Bioscience Centre and more videolinks between Camden and Sydney especially for seminars

The Land reported Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday spoke at the University of Sydney Dairy Research Foundation symposium at Camden last week. The Land reported Dr Ephraim Maltz was the international speaker at the symposium.

Daily Mail (UK) mentioned a study by Dr David Evans and Professor Paul McGreevy from the Faculty of Veterinary Science about how whipping horses does not make them run faster

Channel 10 (Perth) interviewed Dr Andrew O’Shea from the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in relation to a child being attacked by the family dog.

Dr Andrew O’Shea from the Veterinary Teaching Hospital was interviewed on Channel 10 (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide) about character traits of dogs following an attack on a baby girl in Sydney.

Kim McKean wins the 2015 DAIRY RESEARCH FOUNDATION, DAIRY SCIENCE AWARD. Almost half a century ago, in 1966, an enthusiastic teenager by the name of Kim McKean joined the University of Sydney, appointed as Animal Attendant. His contribution to research has been nothing short of impressive. There have been over 40 Master of Science and over 60 PhD thesis completions at the Dairy Research Foundation since 1969, and there would be very few of these 100 postgraduate students who could claim no direct or indirect influence, help or technical and management assistance, from Kim.

Corstorphine Dairy On Tuesday June16 the Minister for Primary Industries, Minister for Lands and Water, the Hon Niall Blair, MLC, visited the campus along with his senior policy advisor Scott Barrett, the local member for Camden the Hon Chris Pattison, and many dairy industry leaders and stakeholders from across the country to plan for the NSW dairy industry’s future. Minister Blair took a tour of Corstorphine AMR dairy, and was particularly interested in the way in which the robotic technology is improving dairy farming. He noted the improvements in animal welfare and production that flow from individualised cow monitoring and management in a voluntary cow traffic system. Minister Blair's horticulture and WorkPlace Health and Safety background, his family connection as clients of our equine hospital at Camden and knowledge of our Arthursleigh operations made this a most successful visit. We hope to host another visit soon to follow up his interest in our aquaculture research, recruitment of future leaders in animal production, and biosecurity research collaborations with NSW DPI.

Emeritus Professor David Fraser, awarded, Member in the General Division (AM). David is truly a “quite achiever” and is currently in Cornell conducting their veterinary leadership program for future veterinary research leaders, which many of our alumni and some staff have attended over the past 26 years

Jonathan Early was interviewed by ABC (Goldfields, South West WA, Alice Springs, Northern Tasmania, Illawarra) Farm Dog Project which analyses traits of a good working dog. PhD researcher in the Faculty of Veterinary Science,

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Alex Chaves is currently in Europe on a Humboldt Fellowship. Photos right with other Australian participants.

In addition Alex went to Berlin from Wed to Friday last week for the Humboldt annual meeting. Lots of networking there. He had the chance to meet and chat with Germany Federal President Joachim Gauck about his research project at the presidential Bellevue palace.

On Friday morning the Australian Ambassador hosts all Australian Humboldtians for a breakfast. http://australia-in-berlin.com/

It was a very valuable week.

Alex is very proud to be a Humboldtian and would like to thank his collegues for the support along these years.

Alex will be off to Copenhagen next Monday. We look forward to the next installment of his trip.

Utilisation gradually increasing (from 63% in the first month to 72.5% in May)

Usage across faculties and users improving however through targeted promotion and training, utilisation can increase.

Bioinformatics services will be available from July 2015

Service includes CLC Genomics Workbench software and advice

Access to this service is available to University of Sydney and affiliated researchers (requires a Unikey) which can be booked using the ICF PPMS system

Software and support costs are part funded through user subscriptions; researchers can use CLC free of charge between March-June 2015 but will need to purchase a subscription from July 2015 – see ICT home page for Pricing

Long-term goal will be to utilise Artemis for bioinformatics capability.

Welcome Cali Willet as newly appointed Bioinformatics Technician Planning currently underway to upgrade the CLC Genomics Server from the current version 6.5.1 to version 7.0.1 This will allow users of CLC Genomics Workbench version 8.0 to connect to the server.

Michael Homsey currently confirming with vendor an upgrade approach and plan to be submitted for change request approval by ICF and ICT management